i am on levle 5 and i am getting fitter but i aint seeing many gains. my arms are a little more toned but i want to really slim down and have a six pack with lean deffonition. is simple fit not for me?? or anybody got any tipps??? and yes i do sleep well and i drink lots of water. my diet is standared. thanks for your time

Well first thing I would ask is what exactly are you expecting to occur? What I mean by that is how defined are your goals? In order to achieve anything in the fitness realm you need to be specific with your training in regards to what you want. First thing I would recommend is asking yourself why you want to be slimmer and have a six pack? What is the purpose of that? How will it serve you in the future? Will it ultimately make you happy to have only those two goals or do you need to further develop that area?

Most of us go and start a fitness regimen with a vague sense of what we want usually with higher expectations or ill conceived notions of what we truly want. When I was younger I thought the ideal for a man was to get bigger and stronger and did a lot of different things to try to achieve those goals. Mostly I wasted a lot of time because my knowledge and experience of what "fitness" really is was lacking. I too wanted that muscular physique and six-pack abs. For me it was a vanity issue mostly versus actually being fit. I wanted to look good around women being the main idea heh.

As I've gotten older I've realized that my main goals, summed up in a nutshell, are to be as fit as I can possibly be. That includes endurance, strength, flexibility, cardio, agility, etc. The side effect (or perk) of working towards those goals is I've become leaner, added muscle, and (according to my wife) more physically attractive. There is a small part of me that still wants those things I wanted when I was younger but now my vanity isn't the priority and I feel better for it. For the last two years my goals have altered, changed, and adapted on a scale I never thought was possible. And although Im middle aged I find myself competing with guys half my age even though physically they look better than I do.

The end result? I'm not frustrated. I have achievable, sustainable goals and get more physically fit every day. I'm happy with who I am becoming and those days of just wishing for it are gone. Thank god.

So, I recommend taking a hard look at your goals, why you want that, and what you have to do to get there. If slimming down and having six-pack abs are your ultimate goal in life you still need to further define that. For example, lets say you are 200 lbs with a 38 inch waist. How slim do you want to be? What do you have to do to get the six pack abs? Maybe lose 20 lbs and/or reduce waistline by 4 inches? How do you go about that? Just Simplefit 3 days a week? In other words break it down to the most basic levels:

1. I want to be slim. how slim?2. I want to lose 20 lbs. How am I going to lose 20 lbs? (current diet and fitness regimen arent working)3. I will change my routine to one that allows me to lose 1-2 lbs a week for the next 3 months. How am I going to do that?4. Change my exercise routine and develop a diet regimen that maintains this goal? What are they?5. a. Continue simplefit routine. b. 3 days a week add a running routine consisting of short, long runs with fartleks and intervel training. (need to write the routine down for each day i.e. Tuesdays 10 50 yard sprints, Thursdays Farleks 3 mile run, Saturdays 10k slow run) c. change diet to meat and vegetables only during the next 3 months, maintain 4-6 oz of meat at each meal and two cups of vegetables. (further define how to cook, shop, and what to eat when not at home).

See where I'm going? You can do this even though it may look somewhat confusing. First things first. Define your goals. Really break them down and determine if that is the best thing for you. Then make a list of how your going to get there and set a date to start. Reevaluate your goals as you go and definitely look for mistakes in your thought process cause there are always going to be some. Correct them as you go and don't beat yourself up for it. Just move on.

Your priority is diet. If you say you are on a standard diet then I will tell you that you are not looking closely enough at it. You need to evaluate everything you put in your mouth and determine what types of calories to eat and how much to lose the weight you need. Argueably diet is 50% of the issue for most folks and they don't put enough effort into it to achieve what they want. It takes effort, consistency, and review on a daily basis to maintain a proper fitness diet. Even the simple mantra by Greg Glassman of "Eat meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, little fruit, no sugar" requires time to sort out the foods and the quantity eaten. Personally I eat 3 meals a day and at each meal I split my plate in 3 sections, one with 5 oz of meat (approximate), and a different color of vegetable on the other two sections. I eat two snacks a day with the equivalent of 11 almonds and a piece of fruit each time. That is 95% of my diet. It has taken time to sort out but I lost 30 lbs doing it and my fitness levels went up on a grand scale. five percent of the time I will cheat such as eating a slice of pizza or a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. Don't neglect this and do the research on it. Your body will thank you I promise.

Goals are most important. If you are in it to simply "look good" and you do NOT turn into a fitness/weightlifting gym rat in the LONG TERM, chances are that as life gets busier/difficult/complicated, you will lose that six pack anyways. And probably pretty quickly.

If you want to skip all the old-wise-man talk and push forward anyway, i will tell you that diet has more to do w/ your six-pack or lack thereof than anything else. "eating standard" is not enough. Do the simplefit diet and if you want, track calories and eat at a deficit. Make sure u get enough protein.

w/ regards to if "simplefit is for you"... again that has to do w/ your goals. If you're looking for a faster route to you looking good and are at level 5, a program like leangains might be better for you. But as far as I can tell, its truly annoying. You have to monitor the times you eat (fasting window), calorie intake, "macros", weightlifting regiment, blah blah blah. Lots and lots of annoying micromanagement.

Best thing about simplefit: because its simple and does not take much time, it becomes a very small part of your life, not YOUR LIFE. If that's appealing to you, stick with it. If not, try a different program. Good luck!